PRELIMINARY ESSAY. 9 



Cuvier observes, that the present continents must have been formed 

 by the recession of the water, and the elevation of the earth *. 



With respect however to the second operation mentioned by Moses, 

 it appears to me sufficient to account for many circumstances in the 

 earth's form, which are most perplexing to the geologist. 



The elevation of our present continents above the level of the basins 

 which contain the waters of the ocean, the irregularities which occur in 

 the strata of which these continents are composed, their inchnation, 

 dislocation, &c. clearly shew to the geologist that they must have been 

 subjected to very great violence ; violence proceeding from some cause 

 far more powerful than any at present known to be in ordinary operation 

 on the earth -f . 



Such a cause is undoubtedly to be found, in the express will of the 

 great Creator ; and surely it cannot be thought fanciful, to suppose that 

 when God said " Let the dry land appear" this cause actually produced 

 the above extraordinary effects it. 



This remark seems to gather much force from the observations of 

 Cuvier, in the Essay already so often referred to. He professedly devotes 

 a great part of the 3 1st chapter to the proof of the proposition, that 

 "the present surface of the earth is not of very ancient formation." In 

 the beginning of liis last chapter, he distinctly states, that " if there be 

 any one circumstance thoroughly established in geology, it is that the 

 crust of our globe has been subjected to a great and sudden revolution." 

 And while as to the manner of this revolution, he again speaks of the 

 bed of the last ocean being laid dry, (according to Moses the dry land 

 appearing at the word of God,) as to the date of this revolution, he makes 

 this most important remark: "The epoch of this revolution cannot be 



* It is unnecessary to refer to particular passages, as M. Cuvier repeatedly alludes to both 

 these operations in his Essay on the Theory of the Earth. 



f " The thread of operation is here broken, the march of natiu-e is changed, and none of 

 the agents which she now employs are sufficient for the production of her ancient works." 

 Cuvier, chap. 8. 



J I would by no means be understood to signify, that all the uTegularities in the earth's 

 strata, are to be traced to this single epoch, many may have occurred in the course of former 

 revolutions of the earth. 



